Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic transmission for a vehicle.
Description of Related Art
Recent increases in oil prices are triggering hard competition among auto-makers in enhancing fuel consumption of a vehicle.
In this sense, research is being conducted on engines in terms of reducing weight and improving fuel efficiency by down-sizing, and research is also being conducted to ensure both drivability and competitiveness for maximizing fuel efficiency by implementing an automatic transmission with multiple speed stages.
However, in the case of the automatic transmission, the number of internal components increases as the number of gear shift stages is increased, which may deteriorate installability, production cost, weight and/or power flow efficiency.
Therefore, in order to maximally enhance fuel consumption of an automatic transmission having increased shift stages, it is important for improved efficiency to be derived by a smaller number of parts.
In this respect, an eight-speed automatic transmission has been recently introduced, and a planetary gear train for an automatic transmission enabling more shift stages is under investigation.
Considering that gear ratio spans of recently developed eight-speed automatic transmissions are typically between 6.5 and 7.5, fuel consumption enhancement is not very large.
In the case of a gear ratio span of an eight-speed automatic transmission having a level above 9.0, it is difficult to maintain step ratios between adjacent shift stages to be linear, thereby causing driving efficiency of an engine and drivability of a vehicle to deteriorate.
Thus, research studies are underway for developing a high efficiency automatic transmission having nine or more speeds.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.